During the last nearly three decades, the number of people over the age of 65 who are hospitalized with heart failure more than doubled, representing a mounting burden on the health care system.
National Health Care system is what we are going to get. But it is going to bankrupt the whole nation.
To battle sliding demand in the United States, Deutsche Post now planned to shut down its domestic U.S. express business and focus on international shipping there. It would spend $3.9 billion on restructuring, $1.9 billion more than previously planned.
The U.S. DHL unit’s full-year EBIT loss would reach $1.5 billion this year, more than the $1.3 billion previously expected.
Europe’s biggest mail and express delivery company already last month cut its full-year profit outlook for this and next year, citing slowing global economic growth, which hit especially its U.S. business.
This only has meaning for some of us. Most of us only use Fed Ex or UPS. But for those of us who were forced into using DHL for one reason or another, this is good news. They did not treat their customers well.
Once you start bailing out business how do you stop? Once they are used to cheap money how do you teach them to hustle? AIG is all over the news again. It is getting another bail out. From Bloomberg….
The U.S. Treasury will buy $40 billion in American International Group Inc. preferred shares, and the Federal Reserve will open two new emergency loan units to finance the company’s securities, the government said today.
The new terms of the government’s assistance are less costly than the Fed’s first loan to AIG on Sept. 16, a statement released in Washington said. The New York Fed gave the original loan to prevent widespread default against AIG creditors in the same week that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed.
Strangely, there appears to be quite a difference in opinion of how significant the package actually is. A number of the measures had been previously announced; still others represent the allocation funds that would have been spent anyways. Moreover, only a minority of the funds are coming from the central government, so the source of the remainder of the money is a trifle opaque.
They don’t really know what to do over there yet. You will know when they are seriously scared when they start selling treasuries.
Will it ever get to that point? Brad Setser makes the point that the bigger the boom the bigger the bust. And China had a big boom.
China’s government announced a two-year stimulus exceeding a half-trillion dollars to offset the impact of slowing global growth and unlock the spending power of its vast population.
Premier Wen Jiabao’s cabinet set plans for 4 trillion yuan, or $586 billion, in spending and stimulus measures through the end of 2010 aimed specifically to target people’s livelihood, the official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday night.
It was unclear how much the plan, which will target 10 areas from rural infrastructure to low-cost housing, represents new spending and how quickly it can stimulate domestic demand.
The question is, will they fund this by selling treasuries? Or will they soak up money that would have otherwise gone to private capital investment.
The implosion of Wall Street and the weakened economy around the state has led to a surge of unemployment claims in New York. The state now pays benefits to 148,000 people, up from 113,000 a year ago, said Leo Rosales, spokesman for the state Department of Labor.
As a result, New York’s trust fund has dwindled to $357 million, down from $538 million a year ago. To meet its obligations, the state has been borrowing from the feds for years, receiving nearly $1.1 billion over the past three years alone. In 2006, the state had to pay $7 million in interest of $1.5 billion it borrowed in 2005.
The state legislature tried unsuccessfully in the spring to increase unemployment insurance taxes, while also raising the maximum weekly benefit, which now stands at $410, to $550. The bill would have increased the wage base to $11,500 over time, from its current $8,500.
Tuesday’s election left Democrats in control of both chambers of the state legislature, and the bill now has a better chance of getting passed, said Assembly member Susan John, a Democrat, chair of the labor committee.
That’s right. Tax the people who are providing jobs more so that the people without jobs can get more money for being unemployed. What a great state.
From General Motor’s press release…
Improving its liquidity position remains a top priority for the company. In response to deteriorating market conditions, GM announced today that in addition to the $15 billion in liquidity initiatives it outlined in July 2008, it has identified $5 billion of incremental liquidity actions. Cumulatively, GM has announced actions aimed at improving liquidity by $20 billion through 2009. To date, $10 billion in internal operating actions have either already been completed or are on track for full execution by the end of 2009.
Even if GM implements the planned operating actions that are substantially within its control, GM’s estimated liquidity during the remainder of 2008 will approach the minimum amount necessary to operate its business. Looking into the first two quarters of 2009, even with its planned actions, the company’s estimated liquidity will fall significantly short of that amount unless economic and automotive industry conditions significantly improve, it receives substantial proceeds from asset sales, takes more aggressive working capital initiatives, gains access to capital markets and other private sources of funding, receives government funding under one or more current or future programs, or some combination of the foregoing. The success of GM’s plans necessarily depends on other factors, including global economic conditions and the level of automotive sales, particularly in the United States and Western Europe.
Translation: General Motors is about to become bankrupt, government bail out needed soon.
China’s Finance Minister Xie Xuren was called back from an international economic conference in Peru before the meeting began, following orders from Beijing to help resolve problems at home, an organizer of the event said.
Xie left Trujillo, Peru, where Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation finance officials are meeting this week, shortly after arriving at 11:00 a.m. on Nov. 5, Gladys Otero de Swinnen, protocol director for the conference, said in an interview.
“They told him he has to resolve an economic problem and that he’s the only one who could do so,” de Swinnen said. “He was complaining because he had to fly 32 hours to get here and then he had to fly another 32 hours to get back.”
I don’t know what was so critical that he had to fly back just as he got there. But a lot of China’s problems stem from this….
Sales at the nation’s largest retailers fell off a cliff in October, casting fresh doubt on the survival of some chains and signaling that this will probably be the weakest Christmas shopping season in decades.
The remarkable slowdown hit luxury chains that sell $5,000 designer dresses as badly as stores that offer $18 packs of underwear, suggesting that consumers at all income levels are snapping their wallets shut.
A lot of the stuff that is not selling was made in China.
I just checked to see what I had last written and found I have been even more delinquent than I had imagined. I did not tell you anything about my multi-state tour to set up my little invention that so pleased my boss: the On Time Delivery Bridge. It keeps track of lines that we Click Here to continue reading.
A hand made four story bombshelter underneath a rather ordinary house.
A talk from a pilot about dangerous Israeli Jammers, the perfidious French, and the quality of Indian Fighter Pilots. Well worth listening to even though the sound quality sucks.